If the London Bridge attack was to happen in Surrey it would take much longer for armed officers to travel to the scene and could result in more deaths, the former Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner has claimed.

Kevin Hurley was talking to BBC Surrey on Tuesday (June 6) about the London Bridge attack in which seven people were killed and dozens more injured after attackers drove a white van into pedestrians.

They also then on a knife rampage through Borough High Street on Saturday (June 3).

The three attackers were shot dead by police within eight minutes of the first emergency call coming through.

Former Surrey PCC Kevin Hurley

Mr Hurley has called for all police response officers to carry handguns in the wake of the latest terror attack and said if a similar attack was happening in Surrey the response would take much longer, as the armed officers might have to travel miles.

Speaking on BBC Surrey Mr Hurley said: “Yes the armed officers did a great job, don't get me wrong, but they took 480 seconds to arrive in the centre of London, imagine if this has been Dartford, Stoke, Brighton or Bolton, it would not have been the same.”

Mr Hurley, who held the Surrey PCC position for four years, said if armed response officers had to deal with an incident in Haslemere and they had to travel from Brighton or Staines, it would take a long time for them to arrive.

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London Bridge attack

“Work out how long it would take if the armed response unit is over at Reigate to drive to Camberley or vice versa," he said.

"Then remember [sic] in a shopping centre in Staines or Guildford three men running berserk with knives at shoppers stabbing people at one at every three seconds, work out how many they would kill."

The former head of the counter terrorism department for the City of London Police also spoke about the issue on Sky News and claimed the response time was quick as the terrorists “walked into the middle of the wasps nest” on Saturday, as London Bridge is near to where the armed response units are based.

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However Nev Kemp, new assistant chief constable at Surrey Police, disagreed with Mr Hurley about the response time of armed officers.

He said the officers are positioned across Surrey and Sussex, as the two counties share the armed response unit, so they are not concentrated in one particular area of the county.

“There is armed response officers that are patrolling Surrey 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it's absolutely right to say they cant be everywhere all of the time,” assistant CC Kemp said.

“But the armed officers are not concentrated in one particular part of any county. It is important to recognise the travelling time when you try to spread them across Surrey as best we can.”

He assured the public that when intelligence does come through the force acts quickly and said Surrey Police attended an address in Epsom on Sunday after receiving information about suspect behaviour but concluded there was no threat.

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Responding to Mr Hurley's view that all police response officers should be armed Assistant Chief Constable Kemp said that it was a “national debate” but he was “proud to be part of an unarmed police service.”

“If you look at the time the incident was dealt with in London, it was very impressive,” he said. “At the moment I don't think the evidence supports that. I think its a national debate and I think its something that should be kept in review.”

The current Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, David Munro, also responded to Mr Hurley's comments.

“I am satisfied that Surrey Police are as prepared as they can be to deal with any attack,” Mr Munro said. “Surrey and Sussex Police have a joint firearms team which has over 200 officers and a current uplift in recruitment means that number is continuing to grow.

“The armed response officers are deployed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and while of course they cannot be everywhere all of the time, that coverage is spread across the two counties meaning they are able to respond as quickly as possible to any incident.

“There are well rehearsed major incident and mobilisation plans in place to deal with any threat but of course we can never be complacent and those plans must be continually reviewed and tested.”

Members of the public are continually reminded to contact the police or call the anti terrorism hotline on 0800 789 321 if they suspect anything or anyone's behaviour.

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